Vanessa Minter, the American Airlines reservations agent who answered Betty Ong’s first call from a hijacked aircraft on September 11, 2001, has met the flight attendant’s family 25 years after the attacks.
Ong was working aboard American Airlines Flight 11, travelling from Boston to Los Angeles, when she contacted the company’s reservations centre in Cary, North Carolina. Her call was the first warning received on the ground that the aircraft had been taken over.
Speaking to journalist Jonah Kaplan, Minter recalled how Ong calmly reported that members of the crew had been injured, the cockpit could not be reached and the aircraft appeared to be under attack.
Ong remained on the line for about 23 minutes, passing on information as the situation developed. Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre at 8.46am.
The call was later played in part to the 9/11 Commission and became one of the key records of the hijacking. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum describes Ong as responding with courage and professionalism as she relayed information from the aircraft.
Minter has previously said she regarded Ong, rather than herself, as the hero of that morning. She initially contacted the family by letter, but the two sides did not meet in person for many years.
In 2021, Minter spoke virtually with Ong’s brother, Harry, in a reunion facilitated by broadcasters in North Carolina and San Francisco. During that conversation, she told him that his sister was “absolutely amazing” and should be remembered as a role model.
The meeting 25 years after the attacks gave Minter the opportunity to speak directly with Ong’s relatives about the call, the flight attendant’s final moments and the lasting effect of the events of September 11.
For the Ong family, the conversation also offered a fuller account of the woman who received Betty’s message and helped ensure that the warning reached American Airlines officials on the ground.
